STOCKTON - A young couple barely escaped a two-alarm fire that gutted two units at a central Stockton apartment complex Saturday evening.

The fire was reported at 6:02 p.m. on Cotton Court, just east of North El Dorado Street and south of Weberstown Park. Nicole Belsheim, 22, was sleeping on the couch when her husband, 24-year-old Edward Belsheim, came out of the bedroom and asked if she smelled smoke.

"He opened up the door and the smoke started coming in really bad," she said. "My husband picked me up and jumped over the flames. He carried me down the stairs and everything exploded."

Edward Belsheim said they had little time to spare.

"We just barely made it out," he said.

Battalion Chief Matt Knierim said two apartment units were destroyed and two adjoining units were damaged. The American Red Cross was contacted to provide shelter for those displaced by the blaze, Knierim said.

The fire appeared to have started in a downstairs apartment unit and quickly spread to the Belsheim's apartment on the second floor. The cause of the fire was under investigation, Knierim said. Nicole Belsheim sobbed and embraced her husband as fire crews battled the blaze. When the flames were extinguished, she watched them throw some of their charred belongings, including the pillow cushions she was sleeping on, out a second-story window.

"It's scary how you can lose everything in one minute," she said. "I tried to grab my cat, but I couldn't see anything. She's still in there."

The cat did not survive the fire, but, fortunately, the Belsheims did.

"If they told you they were leaping fire to get out, I'd believe them because there was no other way out except jumping out of a window," Knierim said. "They could have ended up getting trapped."

Contact reporter Jason Anderson at (209) 546-8279 or janderson@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/crimeblog and on Twitter @Stockton911.